One of the most important parts of any smartphone is the screen. It's a tiny (or not so tiny) window to the Internet, presented through various apps. With this focus on the screen, LG created the G3, a device that aims to pack as much screen and as many pixels into a device as possible.

The 5.5-inch, 2560×1440 IPS LCD is the real spec sheet standout here, taking the G3 above the 1080p mark. The display is incredibly dense at 534 ppi, and the bezels have been slimmed down to the point that the phone has one of the highest screen-to-bezel ratios ever.

As you would expect, the screen is beautiful. Even at point-blank range, it's hard to resolve a single pixel. 1080p screens are also beautiful, though, and when looking at the two, side-by-side, we aren't convinced the jump to 1440p is necessary. More pixels only matter if you can see them, and on a ~5-inch device, it's almost impossible to tell the difference between a 1080p screen and the 1440p screen of the G3. Every bump in resolution comes with more power draw, and we'd prefer longer battery life over an extra serving of pixels that make no difference in day-to-day usage.

There isn't much 1440p stuff to do with the 1440p screen anyway. The Play Store, YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu only show content in 1080p. You don't get any extra content from apps, either, so you only get any benefits if you're viewing content from the camera or if you're reading the slightly crisper fonts.

While the G3 has one of the highest resolution screens ever, the Galaxy S5's AMOLED has a greater dynamic range than the G3—meaning the S5 gets both brighter in heavy light and dimmer in darkness. So if you're looking for the "best" display, pixel counts don't always tell the whole story.

Brightening up all those pixels on the G3 apparently causes heat and power draw to be a major concern. LG had to build thresholds into the software to not allow the screen to go above 90 percent brightness if the phone gets too hot. We ran into this "brightness throttling" message after a few minutes of moderate usage on a warm day.

Enlarge/ The back, showing the speaker and the horizontal brushed paint.

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While LG often describes the back of the G3 as "metallic," it's actually plastic. It's not a bad plastic though. It has a hard finish that is only slightly glossy and does a good job of repelling fingerprints. Unlike some of the high-gloss plastics used in the past, the G3 doesn't get greasy after being used for a bit. If LG has to use plastic, we'd still prefer something like the soft touch backing on the (LG-made) Nexus 5, which was matte and grippy.

No speaker can hold a candle to the mini boom box that HTC strapped to the One M8, but the speaker on the G3 is plenty loud for ringtones, speaker phone, and casual gaming. Thanks to the slightly curved back, it doesn't get muffled when placed on a table, and in portrait and landscape it's not naturally blocked by your hand.

Enlarge/ The back of the G3, showing the power and volume buttons, laser autofocus module, camera, and dual-LED flash.

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LG's trademark rear buttons are back, and it's pretty much the same story as with LG G Flex or the G2—the rear power button can be awkward to hit, but that's not a big deal, since double tapping on the screen will also turn it on. Double-tap-to-wake is one of our favorite OEM-added features, and once you get used to it, you'll find yourself tapping all your devices expecting them to turn on.

Moving the buttons to the back has no doubt helped LG shave a few millimeters off the side bezels, and all around the G3 is an exercise in maximizing screen real estate. It's a 5.5-inch device that is only 4.1mm taller and 2.1mm wider than the 5.1-inch Galaxy S5.

By the way, our G3 is meant for the Korean market, hence the "Olleh" branding on the back. The notch in the top left corner is for a massive 8-inch telescoping DMB antenna, which would pick up TV stations if we were in Korea. Versions for other countries will not have this.

The concentric circles on the bottom front bezel.

Ron Amadeo

The power button and camera surround use a concentric circle pattern, and the volume buttons are dimpled.

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The bottom edge, which houses the MicroUSB 2.0 port, microphone, and headphone jack.

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The back is removable and the battery can be replaced. There's also a MicroSD slot here.

LG has put some thought into the look and textures on the device, though there are a lot of different textures going on at once. The back has a horizontally brushed faux-metal look; the power button, camera lens, and bottom bezel all use a concentric circles pattern; and the volume buttons have a dimpled texture.

It might not look like it, but the glass goes all the way to the bottom of the device, even covering the silver strip at the bottom. The phone looks a little strange having a black bezel on the top and sides, with an abrupt change to silver at the bottom, but it makes the G3 distinct, at least. The silver bezel highlights the reflective LG logo plastered to the front of the device, which comes off as tacky compared to the unbranded fronts of the iPhone and Nexus line.

Power users will be glad to hear that, unlike the G2, the G3's back is removable, and the battery can easily be swapped out. There's also a MicroSD slot.

Software

Refreshingly, there isn't a lot to talk about on the software side of things. As the tagline says, LG has tried to keep things simple and has mostly tried to stay away from bucketfuls of useless software add-ons. LG likes to tout the new "flat" design, which looks fine. All the icons seem to be either sharp-cornered squares or perfectly round circles (other than the Korean carrier crapware), which actually look OK next to the normal loadout of Google icons.

Not all of the software is stripped down and simple, though. LG has used some 3D animations, which look very out of place with the simple design. LG's Smart Notice widget, for instance, unfolds and flops onto the screen when you touch it, slowly coming to a rest afterward. Four of the five home screens change with a normal slide animation, but the fifth one uses a 3D "fold-in-half" animation. It's very silly. It feels like LG tried to fix all the crazy UI animations but didn't catch all of them.

The second image above shows the open "Smart Notice" widget, which displays information about the weather, time, date, and a list of special notifications. Smart Notice is like a watered-down version of Google Now, as it tries to help you manage your device. It will alert you when the battery is low and will offer to remove seldom-used apps or free up space by deleting temporary files. It will also help with communication by reminding you to call someone back after a missed call, or by offering to add a frequently dialed number to your contacts. We haven't seen it do much more than that—it seems very limited. It's just a widget, though, and if you hate it, just long press and move it to the trashcan.

The third image is the notification panel, which is kind of ugly. Many notification panels use transparency, but usually only on the background. Everything on the G3 notification panel is transparent, even the notifications, which can make things confusing or hard to read, depending on what your current app is.

LG's apps are actually pretty easy on the eyes. When KitKat switched to all-white status bar icons and Google made the design a requirement of the Android 4.4 Compatibility Definition (PDF), the idea was that the status bar could be made transparent, which would make it "themed" with the color scheme of the action bar. While Google has yet to really make use of the feature in its own apps (other than in the Google Now Launcher), LG has embraced the transparent status bar and used it in nearly every AOSP app it replaced. The layout is great, too. LG sticks to the Google conventions with swipe tabs and navigation drawers.

LG has also packed a ton of customization options into its phone. The keyboard can be resized, the fonts can be changed, and you can pick the style (white or black; flat or gradient) of the system bar. The screen-off and lock screen effects can be changed, and there's even a theme engine, which will change the icons.

Like past LG skins, long pressing on the back button will bring up a split screen interface, which even supports Google apps. Want to watch YouTube while browsing the Web? No problem.

Enlarge/ LG's mess of a recent apps screen. There are three modes, and they are all bad.

The worst part of LG's skin is the recent apps menu, which always shows massive full-screen thumbnails. Performing a pinch gesture will switch between three modes, a 3x3 grid, a 2x2 grid, or a single row. None of these options are really very good, thanks to the huge thumbnails. The stock Recent Apps interface uses square thumbnails with more spacing, which makes the screen much more glanceable when you're in a hurry. LG also flipped the normal convention around and made new apps appear at the top of the list, instead of the bottom. To add to the visual confusion, there's now a strip of buttons at the bottom which appear to be Korean carrier crapware and don't look to be removable. Hopefully AT&T and Verizon don't get wind of this.

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Ron Amadeo
Ron is the Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he specializes in Android OS and Google products. He is always on the hunt for a new gadget and loves to rip things apart to see how they work. Emailron@arstechnica.com//Twitter@RonAmadeo